Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. Minister of National Defence for his service and for a great speech today.
It is common knowledge in the army—and I am sure he would probably be more experienced than I on that—that an army without air force ability is really not a great thing to have. We would not be able to protect our troops on the ground or even achieve dominance on the ground when operating in such a fashion.
The minister mentioned at the beginning of his speech that, with quick air strikes, we were able to get the Iraqi army on the ground to battle back and start making ground, which is to limit the power of ISIS on the ground, and that is just because of the air strikes. Would the minister agree with me that air strikes are very important and crucial for any military operation, yes or no?